"Connoisseurs
of the guitar will lap this album up"
Wondrous
Stories
"..
the album retains the simplistic essence of Southern music"
North Guide
Americana
Record Buyer & Music Collector: October 2000
"This is an
instrumental effort, only the second of his long career and, suffice
to say, the required ambience comes over despite or perhaps because
of that. He really is a national treasure is Michael Chapman, and it's
good there are still labels willing to put his work in front of the
public."
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Americana
Dorset Echo: September 2000
"For the most
part, these are unaccompanied acoustic guitar vignettes of a rare beauty
and an appealing bluegrass based simplicity, intended to conjure up
mental pictures of rural America. What do you know, it works too. The
production is appealingly up-close audio verite, with the occasional
hint of fret buzz to add appropriate smudges of character."
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Americana
Guitar Techniques: October 2000
Michael Chapman
is legendary amongst the fingerpicking 'unplugged' community and has
been featured in GT on a couple of occasions. This album is a testament
to the man's unfathomable gift - and it was great to see that the albums
notes include all the various tunings, so six-string scholars please
take note.
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Americana
Modern Dance 2000
Apart
from the fact that Chapman came from Leeds, and apart from the fact
that in his time he's given us some brilliant albums, he is simply a
stunning guitarist. Take it from me, if you're starting out learning
guitar (or even play a decent tune or two) try and wean yourself gently
with this album. It will either inspire or make you want to learn another
instrument! The sleevenotes endear you to his warmth and personality,
failing that, the album is simply incredible.
Americana
is an album that contains songs that derive their origins from the States,
although not all. Elements of Ry Cooder slip through on Swamp, Kottke
and many other blues/country guitarists whisper their influence and
jazz makes an entrance on more than one occasion. However, despite these
obvious influences, Chapman has taken them all, count them, each and
every one and made them his very own. Sweet Little Friend From Georgia,
The Coming Of The Roads, Anything But The Blues, Rattlesnake, a Strangers
Map Of Texas, and the un-American, Jumping Geordie all combine to make
this an essential album for the guitarist as well as those of you who
appreciate fine musicanship, and cracking songwriting.
Americana
should be rated as up there amongst Fully Qualified Survivor, and bring
Chapman's name back to the front as a truly gifted British guitarist,
highly inventive and just what the Dr. ordered. (Dave W).
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AMERICANA
(Siren SRNACD. 4002) October 2000
Inexplicably, Michael remains vastly under-heralded in this, his home
country. Despite that, however, these days it seems that every time
I turn my back there's another Michael Chapman release out! Not that
I'm complaining - after two great recent Mooncrest CDs of earlier material
(Growing Pains and Pleasures Of The Street), and hot on the heels of
his excellent new album of songs The Twisted Road, comes a further new
studio venture, this time exclusively instrumental. Inspired by Michael's
most recent tour of the Southern States, all but one of the tunes self-composed,
and every guitar and percussive device played by Michael himself. The
album's 49 minutes represent as potent evocation of genius loci as you
can get, on an expectedly wide range of musical styles encompassing
both the wonderfully primal simplicity of Sweet Little Friend From Georgia,
Be Natural and Coming Of The Roads and more ambitious collages in the
form of sound-pictures like the lengthier Swamp and Gaddo Lake. Some
have seen parallels with John Fahey as a major inspiration in both kinds
of composition; though there's an element of truth in that observation,
Michael's own playing is distinctive and his conceptual arranging skills
highly individual. Indian Annie's Kitchen brings to the "voice
of the turtle" a kind of "kodak ghost" that is sure to
strike a chord or two in all long-term Chapman admirers! This fine album
is far more than mere travelogue or mood music, as it digs right deep
into the psyche of the landscape of the Southern States in a way that
ranks with those epic Ry Cooder filmscapes but (unlike much of Cooder's
cinematic music) possessing a real lasting appeal away from any induced
wide-screen context.
David
Kidman
(published in Traditional Music Maker, October 2000)
Americana
Taplas: October/November 2000
"Americana
- a purely instrumental album - emphatically demonstrates his total
mastery of the acoustic guitar, from which he produced an exceptionally
rich, warm and full bodied tone... What makes (this album) stand out
from the crowd, apart from sheer technical skill, is Chapman's ability
to stamp his own footprint on a well-trudged musical road. His evocative
melodies often conjure up vivid images of wide-open spaces, which he
splashes with just enough colour to bring them to life, effectively
adding elements of surprise and adventure.
From
an interview in Record Buyer:
Q: So this is that rare beast, an instrumental concept album?
"It's a musical
impression of me driving across through the southern states of American,
which I've seemed to have done quite a lot just lately, either for reasons
of work or go over there to do a tour and then just stay for a while.
I love to just get in a car in America, especially in the South, and
just drive around, to what I call small town America - the small town
America you used to see in the movies and it is actually still there,
even though it's dying.
Because what they're
doing in America is what they are beginning to do here, they suck the
life out of the little places by putting all the shops and malls and
everything on the edges and it sucks the life out of the town so the
town actually dies. But it's still there, there's still like the odd
little places here and there where you can wander in and there's still
a family run café or restaurant where you can eat yourself daft
for $5.
Q: Are you depicting it as it was and will no longer be?
"I'm depicting
it as I see it, basically, but with a guitar! The main piece on it is
a thing called "Swamp". My wife got interested in swamps as
we drove across the South looking at swamps... full of mud and water
and 'gators and snakes, all kinds of things. I just love the whole feel
of the South, its slower, people have got time for each other, people
talk to each other and I wanted to sort of get this across but using
the guitar rather than words.
